no guineas for me!

[chickie_mama]

I had set a batch of guineas (13) which were due to hatch last Wednesday/Thursday.

They all failed!!!!

Out of the 13, I had 6 that were developing nicely.

No pips, no nothing!!!!!

That was my 2nd attempt at hatching guineas.

I will try 1 more time. (If I can find eggs)

Why, oh why can't I hatch guineas?!?!

 

[aaronzclark]

The 6 you said was fine you should of left them going guineas are smaller and take longer to hatch

 

[sred98]

So sorry you had trouble with the hatch! Ask Damselfish for tips...she's great at hatching them out!

Shelly

 

[chickie_mama]

Quote:
When I opened the eggs, the guineas looked like they had died before I put them in the hatcher.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I had a lot of problems hatching them. I had 3 of my own guineas eggs set last fall and they all quit, then I had gotten 14 eggs and only had 4 hatch. Then I got 6 eggs (shipped) that all hatched, though I had to help one of them. I kept them in the same bator as my quail eggs though, which I keep at a higher humidity, around 50% at least. Idk if that had anything to do with it or not, but that's how I'll be doing them from now on. The batch of 14 that I had had 7 that didn't develop, and 7 that should have hatched. Three of them quit the last week or so, then the other 4 hatched, but that was from 14 eggs!! I was about to give up, then had the great hatch, so now I have more. I don't expect 100% hatch from shipped eggs again, but I do hope that I have better luck than I did with the 14. I have 19 eggs this time

So that's my advice, keep the humidity up higher than you would for chicken eggs.

Also, the ones I did have hatch all hatched on day 26 at least, so I don't know what that's all about.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Well, what is odd is that I had more luck out of guinea eggs that I did with my chicken eggs the last 2 hatches. My incubation methods must be more favorable towards the guineas.

 

[damselfish]

Thanks Shelly but I think my "emergency" hatch was purest luck & some very determined keets in those shells! Hope they're well.

Chickie_mama, I think when I sent test eggs out for hatching that the folks who did it just used regular chicken temp/humidity settings & did very well. I don't know what you were using, but I did see some pretty weird guinea incubating instructions floating around on the net when I was researching it. Try a post in the regular incubating section too.

Good luck!

 

[sred98]

Judith, I went out of town for the 4th and came back to them with all their feathers and roosting in the little brooder!

They still prefer to sprawl out in the bottom like they are dead! Scares me still! LOL!

I think it was more than luck...you've got skills!

Shelly

 

[patyrdz]

oh noooo
Quote:
I have had better hatches with guineas lately too! Silkies and showgirls on the other hand.....

 

[Heather J]

I hatched 9 out of 12 guineas (from shipped eggs, and the other three quit really late in the game, how amazing is that?) no problem, but getting my OWN chicken eggs to hatch is a nightmare. Maybe 15 percent if I'm lucky. I try to keep the humidity between 25 and 30 for the whole incubation until hatch time so they don't drown in the shells after I repeatedly lost a lot in the last week this spring. (which obviously worked great for guineas, since they were in the same bator), but I'm still getting pathetic chick hatches. *sigh* At least my own eggs are free, right?

Well, free-ish, anyway.